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Bats in Barn Robin Batman help

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Woodie
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 109 Michigan lower
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2009-07-27          164432


Need some advice --my pole barn has become a 'home ' for some bats. i find their 'calling cards' pretty much down the center of the barn floor. I hate to have to resort to 'permanetly' disabling my 10 x10 slider access :-(, as that seems to be the only access route thats big enough for them to squeeze thru. Besides calling in a professional 'exterminator' svc( $$). Is there something i can do? I know they are great bug eaters and their poop is great for gardens -But not on my tractor, equipment and tools. Also I hear its illegal to kill them in some states. Help. Unless you know batman can pie piper them away...he he



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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2009-07-27          164434


Check out the article at the top of this link.

They have an expensive ultrasonic control that they claim works but I'd certainly want a money back guarantee for $500 :) ....


Link:   Bat Control

 

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2009-07-28          164436


Maybe make one of those bat homes that go on a pole or on the wall of something and perhaps they'll move out on their own. Michigan has County Extension Services which on this side of Michigan are through the local colleges, or used to be. Also try the local Department of Ag. Try calling Lansing's main help number--ya never know--maybe (Governor) Jennifer herself will answer--'course she'll want to tax you for having bats! Although, she IS from Canukistan and she may think you want to start a little league or something with all those "bats" LOL. ....


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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-07-28          164437


Not hard or costly. Watch outside at dusk to confirm their in/out route. Then buy, from a pest-control firm or on the net a one-way passage that you affix over the passageway, which lets them out only. Or you could make your own, using wire mesh like screening in a conical shape, small end facing out, or tubular with a one-way door in it.

The Small Brown Bat (which is your likely species) can squeeze through a space the size of a quarter, so check the building.

Naturalists are concerned about their declining numbers, so might want to capture and relocate them. Or, if you wouldn't mind them there but outside, you could put a couple of bat houses on the outside. The web has free plans for them plus advice. ....


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DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998
Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2009-07-28          164443


Quote:
Originally Posted by auerbach | view 164437
Not hard or costly. Watch outside at dusk to confirm their in/out route. Then buy, from a pest-control firm or on the net a one-way passage that you affix over the passageway, which lets them out only. Or you could make your own, using wire mesh like screening in a conical shape, small end facing out, or tubular with a one-way door in it.....


Great advice from Auerbach. I have had bats living on the outside trim of my house. Common practice is for carpenters here is to shim the facia trim 3/4" out for the cedar siding to be pushed under leaving 1/2" by 6" bat cave all around the roof line of my house. A perfect bat cave.

The kind of bats we had only lived under the trim during the warm season as in the winter they migrated to caves. Before they returned in the spring we filled all the cavities with a black foam.

The bats love tight spaces as I described, we even had one or two nest in our patio umbrella when it was down and wrapped tight!

Bats have to drop to be able to fly, as I discovered years ago when I had one in the house, he flew into the bathroom, into the mirror where he had no traction and dropped into the sink where he was helpless!

You might be able to hang some plastic sheeting up after they leave at night, allowing for a drop location, for any that are left behind.

Once they are gone look for those narrow tight spaces they love to live in inside the poll barn and caulk them up.

Dennis ....


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Woodie
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 109 Michigan lower
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2009-08-04          164648


KW, EW, Auer,Dennis- Sorry guys- for taking so long in getting back to you and thanking you for the leads and advice.(more pressing issues took prioity). Either way I go its going to take some $$ :-( . Prolly a tad less and inexpensive way by DIY,as I just heard a coworker down the hall of cubes from me say its costing him $400 just for trapping/baiting by a licensed pest controller and no gaurantee and he's still doing a lot of caulking/plugging himself. Guess my 'shaky legs' will have to manuever the ladders a few more times (I don't like getting up on ladders no more-getting a greater repect for heights the old i get--he he)
Appreciate the input and hopefully by next year I'll have them appropriately relocated/shoo'd away....
EW- jenny may want the tax for lodging them-but I can't tell exactly which nights and how many are staying since they don't ask for any beds or extra cots..he he ....


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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2009-08-05          164661


Truly asking here, would a radio and say strobe light at night help? With some of the newer so call music there has to be something bats find tasteless. ....


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DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998
Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2009-08-05          164662


Quote:
Originally Posted by kthompson | view 164661
Truly asking here, would a radio and say strobe light at night help? With some of the newer so call music there has to be something bats find tasteless.


Sharper Image used to sell a radio frequency device that supposedly deterred bats from living in the attic.

Before I sealed up all the points where they were living I put a very powerful stereo amplifier and a very large speaker up in the attic at such a high volume level that I eventually blew the speaker.

We ran it during the day when we were not home, fortunatley we are far from neighbors. Net impact no change in bat population.

The device Sharper Image was selling and others like it I believe are high frequency, so the human ear cannot pick it up. ....


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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2009-08-05          164669


We used to have a problem with bats in the hangars at our airport, they would crap all over the planes, but it was heaven for the little buggers, lots of open space and insects.

At the suggestion of our local Natural Resources (our version of Fish & Wildlife) we bought some realistic rubber snakes from a novelty store and laid them out one on each airplane, up as high as we could reach on the roof.

Sure enough, the bats didn't fancy becoming Hors D'oeuvres for a snake and beat a hasty retreat.

It also worked remarkably well at keeping the pigeons and other birds away too.

The trick we were told though is to get thick rubber ones, not plastic, during the day they absorb a lot of heat and the bats can sense when they wake up at dusk that it's a warm object, they then think it's alive.

Best of luck. ....


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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-08-05          164671


Murf: did you supply placards to the owners: "Remove Snakes Before Flying"?

Woodie: another strategy is to wait for them to migrate south (likely unless the barn's always heated) and seal up then. Or consider them your pest-control associates and just put some plastic over what you don't want guanofied. ....


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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2009-08-05          164674


Quote:
Originally Posted by auerbach | view 164671
Did you supply placards to the owners: "Remove Snakes Before Flying"?


Didn't they do a movie on this? ....


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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2009-08-05          164680


Kenny beat me to it. LOL

Years ago I was visiting an Uncle who lived in the Florida panhandle in my Dad's Cessna 185 amphib as a stop-over between south Florida and Toronto. He lived on the edge of a large lake just west of Tallahassee with a concrete ramp into the lake. It was pretty warm and had left the door open to prevent it getting too hot inside the cabin.

He informed me that unless I liked having snakes for passengers that wasn't a good idea!

It seems the area had a fair population of Cotton Mouth's that would climb up into anything like that in order to be able to drop onto and ambush any food passing beneath it.

Let me tell you, that was the most thorough pre-flight check I've ever done, before or since!!!

Best of luck. ....


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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2009-08-06          164695


Murf those Cotton Mouths have a bad attitude. The only snake in this part of the world that is aggressive. They like branches but will also coil up and float down the river.
....


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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2009-08-06          164701


Quote:
Originally Posted by kthompson | view 164695
Murf those Cotton Mouths have a bad attitude.


I wasn't exactly planning on patting it on the head and saying "nice snake" if I found one either. LOL

On the other hand I'm told they're good eating. ;)

Best of luck. ....


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pappy103
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 23 FLORIDA
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2009-08-19          165100


This is kind of like the snake deal. We got a couple of realistic plastic owls and suspended them up with short strings so they move slightly. Worked like a charm. ....


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